Tag: Apple

Last week, Dance Gavin Dance released a song from their upcoming album Artificial Selection called “Midnight Crusade.” Given that DGD is my favorite band, of COURSE I was gonna check out the song and listen to it on repeat for 5 hours. What I was not expecting was that the music video would be so incredibly Woke AF.

The reason this video is so damn good to me is because it articulates the complex relationship between technological advancements, anti-human capitalism, and exploitation in roughly 3 and half minutes. The video starts up with shots of metal and a human head shaped mold. Then we see Tilian reveal his robotic creation, which is Jon Mess. Of course, this version of the robot is imperfect. He can’t even perform basic functions properly. Then Tilian upgrades him and that’s when things get really interesting.

At about 1:10 in the video we see this:

Now like any good inventor, Tilian wants to make the absolute best product he can so that there can be the most return on investment when he markets his product. That’s the basic structure of how business works, right? Well, that isn’t the case anymore since technology has been used to exploit its user base in order to make more profit. Take Facebook as an example. Why do you think it tracked its users’ data? It’s because there was opportunity for profit in it. Why does Tilian upgrade Jon Mess? Same exact reason. That, and if he gets Jon to function properly, he could effectively change how society functions, much like social media has done.

So how can one Fully Functioning Robot change our entire Capitalist structure? Easy. The video shows this very quickly, but it’s there.

The American Workforce is dependent on labor. Without getting too technical here, our economy no longer values manufacturing positions. So when a certain shit-bag president says he would magically help coal miners, the reality was that only those at the top would ever see this “help.” Actual miners are left out because it is much cheaper and effective to automate the business using machines so that you can undercut your labor costs and therefore make more money. Welcome to how capitalism ACTUALLY works.

So I guess now you may be asking yourself how do companies do this? How can they get away with it?! Well, the answer to that is really complicated, but if you happen to be familiar with Antonio Gramsci’s work, then you may already know. I won’t dive too into this because it’s wildly complicated, but Gramsci was asking himself why Italians were not actively protesting the Fascist regime under Mussolini. His answer was that power works in a very frail yet complicated way, where those who HAVEpower must constantly request consent from those they are subjugating. Now how does this look?

Like a crazed robot giving a human a massage so that he thinks robots really are okay. Look at this dude’s face. You think he’s gonna suddenly say Tilian is evil or that robots are terrible? Nahh. That’s the face that says “Y’know that there robot is alllright.”

In the video, after Jon presents his whole business strategy, they all have a party, and what do you think happens? Do you think robots taking over humans would be a good thing? Welp…

It’s met with thunderous applause and a party for the Robot. I like how the only Black employee is still suspicious of Jon, but has no problems partying with him later. That’s what you gotta do when you’re a person of color working in a predominantly white, capitalist structure. You kinda have to go with the flow, even if it’s dumb as hell. Which brings us to this pivotal moment in the video:

Yeah, who didn’t see this coming? Of course, Jon Mess kills all the humans during the party and then makes them into machines. What does this mean? Well, I believe it’s to get society to think about its reliance on technology and how our lives are being dictated by it. More rapidly, we are surrendering parts of ourselves to it, and we become what the robot was supposed to be: a product to be sold. Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s been all over the internet after all.

I’ll give you a minute to think…..

FACEBOOK! That’s right. Now I’m not saying that the video somehow had the precognition to see what would happen with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it does carry a lot of overlap, namely in how Facebook exploited its user base (I.E. humans), gathered data on us without proper consent (automation), and sold that data to various third parties (capital). What Facebook became was a digital human farm for advertisers to curate what we see online. What makes Cambridge Analytica so damning is that it had a direct relation to the Presidential election. It invaded and made those it targeted one with the machine. Facebook is not a website that encourages communication. It longs to be the ONLY site for it, to limit people’s choices to communicate online so that we HAVE to use its technology. After all, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp. Are there really any alternatives?

Before this post gets any longer, I wanna just ask a question. Why was Tilian’s character no longer shown once Jon Mess shows his “business plan” and then goes on his killing spree? I think it’s to showcase the relationship that Silicon Valley has with society. Why would Tilian’s character just disappear from all this chaos he caused? Why would he just turn a blind eye? That answer is in the lyrics.

“You’re salty

Can’t fault you

I’m numb to the rhythm that guides you

Take all your confetti away

I know I know what’s killing me

Don’t need your love Your sympathy”

For the purpose of the video, I think these words are to reflect the seeming indifference that Silicon Valley has when it comes the effects their tech has on humanity. For the record, I’m not saying technology is bad. I mean, I’m a media scholar after all. I’m saying that replacing humans with technology and not leaving them a place to function in society is evil. If we’re gonna do that, we should have some sort of Universal Basic Income to insure that anyone can still live. That, and all health costs be covered. I think that’s a fair compromise isn’t it?

A few days ago, Google announced their highly anticipated new phones under a new brand called Pixel. I believe the idea was for Google to leverage itself as a more direct competitor to Apple in terms of smart phone manufacturing.

A few days ago, Google announced their highly anticipated new phones under a new brand called Pixel. I believe the idea was for Google to leverage itself as a more direct competitor to Apple in terms of smart phone manufacturing. You see, Google developed the Android OS. As you may know, it’s free and open source, which allows for free manipulation of it. Yet, it’s rare to actually see this “pure” form of Android realized in an actual device. So what happens? If you own any Android phone from a carrier, you’ll be very familiar with what I’m about to say. Let’s use me as the example. I own an HTC One M8 which I bought through a carrier. It ran on Android 5.1 Lollipop. After a few months of owning my device, I saw the news that Google was set to roll out Android 6.0. “Hooray!” I thought, “I’m gonna get the latest version of Android to use on my phone!” Did I receive it? Nah. Only the lucky Nexus users and some of those Samsung users were ever so lucky out the gate. The reason? Since the Android code is open by nature, it gets altered by the manufacturer and then altered AGAIN by the carrier. The result? Bloatware and other shitty apps for which you probably don’t have any use. So as an Android fan, imagine how ecstatic I was to hear that these Pixel phones were coming, that they were being made by HTC, that they would have some pretty incredible specs, AND that since Pixel is the successor to the Nexus brand, that these devices would always have the latest version of “pure” Android. Seems like an awesome time for an Android fan right? Well. The phones were announced, and wow, they’re a massive disappointment.

Google announced two models, a regular Pixel and a Pixel XL. Aside from screen size, there really isn’t too much to differentiate the two devices. Essentially, they have similar specs to some of the most top-of-the-line phones, and Google boasts that it has a pretty powerful camera. OH, I almost forgot. It has Google Assistant integration, which, if you are familiar with Google Allo (more on that in a future review), should function exactly the same. It also has support for VR if you care about that. Now, why does this not excite me? Well, it comes down to price. The phones come in two storage capacities, 32GB and 128GB. In today’s world, a lot of faith is put into cloud uploads and streaming various media to not take up space on a devices limited memory.Because of this perhaps memory is not a big concern for most people nowadays, but is for me. So naturally, I want the 128 GB phone. Guess how much it is. You know what, I’ll just tell you: For the Pixel, it’s $650 for the 32GB and $750 for the 128GB. The XL costs $770 for the 32GB and $870 for the 128GB. I should also mention that Verizon is the only carrier that you can buy these phones from. You can order it from the Google Store or waltz into a Verizon store to get the phone. So now do you see what disappoints me so?

It’s more than the price. Google is trying to pivot Android to make it more like Apple’s IOS. Apple is somewhat of a pompous company that thrives by making their OS closed off so they have absolute control over it. It works for them and their customers love not thinking about their relationship with their tech or worrying about certain nuanced things that Apple just takes care of. However, the consumer ultimately pays a hefty price for these “premium” devices. I use premium in quotes because though Apple is a popular brand, they really don’t make great devices anymore. In fact, if you observe their latest phones, a lot of them have to catch up to features that have been available to Android users for years now. Not to mention the fact that the iPhone costs around $225 to manufacture and sells them for damn near $800. So what does this mean for Pixel? Google took something that is meant to be open and put its best version beneath a massive pay wall that goes against what Android was about. I can understand Google wanting to compete more directly with Apple, but to try and make Android itself more like Apple is where I draw the line. Look at how similar Pixel looks to an iPhone! It’s clear this phone is meant to try to take Apple customers away. Does this really say that Android is better? To me, Google is conceding that Apple is superior and that Android needs to be more like Apple. Android is at its best when it can be enjoyed in its purest form across all devices, so instead of putting a massive pay wall for an iPhone-wannabe, Google should offer a way for Android users to alter (or unalter perhaps?) the already altered code of their phones to gain the pure experience. That way, no matter what device, anybody who has an Android phone can enjoy Android safely and without all the bloat on their favorite devices.

Google took the hype surrounding their new brand and dropped the ball pretty bad. I’m sure these phones are awesome in their own right, but with the high price and Verizon-only support, the only way to get one is to go to Google’s wireless service Project Fi (which is not bad at all), or go to Verizon and contend with Verizon not sending updates from Google to their customers because they have to slowly, if ever, make alterations to it to fit their bloatware (though they claim otherwise but who knows what will actually happen). If Google could take the idea behind Pixel and make it more affordable, “free from the shackles”of carriers and have external storage support (some of us prefer expanding memory through micro SD card support ya know!), then we might have something that truly disrupts the current Apple led smartphone ecosystem. Until then Pixel is just a missed opportunity for greatness in my eyes.